Good numbers for NBA Finals Game 1

Since double-digit Nielsen household ratings are as scarce as hen’s teeth these days, the NBA and ESPN are understandably geeked up over their 11.8 major market rating for Game 1 of the Thunder-Heat series. It’s the best ever Game 1 overnight on ABC, although it still trails the norm for the NBA’s best days on NBC a few years ago.

ABC had a 10.7 for the Heat-Mavericks opener last year and 11.6 for Pistons-Lakers in 2004.

In Houston, Game 1 had a 12.9 rating on KTRK (Channel 13).

ESPN through the conference finals averaged a 4.5 rating for 21 playoff games, up from 3.6 last year, with an average audience of 6.22 million viewers, up from 4.97 million. The Eastern Conference finals averaged a 6.2 rating with 10.1 million viewers on average. TNT averaged a 5.0 household rating for the Western Conference finals with 7.8 million viewers on average.

Elsewhere on the ratings front, NBC averaged 7.67 million viewers for the Belmont Stakes with a 4.8 Nielsen rating for the race portion of the broadcast, which was extended because of the possibility of a Triple Crown for I’ll Have Another, which scratched the day before the race.

Finally, an encouraging word for local Olympics fans. The USA Gymnastics women’s national championships Sunday on KPRC (Channel 2) outdrew the Astros-White Sox game on Fox Sports Houston and PGA Tour golf on KHOU (Channel 11). Gymnastics had a 1.8 rating, golf a 1.5 and the Astros were at 0.5.